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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Autumn Almanac

Fall is here in Taiwan, all two weeks' of it (according to one
well-known local blogger), and the weather has been very nice (with the
exception of a few days' worth of rain). Today was especially pleasant,
and I made good use of the sunshine by going for a walk in the area
around the Kuanyin (Guān​yīn) 觀音 temple atop the hill behind the
Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology 中台科技大學. The walk up
to the temple is a short and easy one, but fortunately there is a
network of trails in the area behind the temple, and I was able to make a
two-hour loop around the hills.

The two little kissing duck figurines were complemented by recorded quacks being played on a continuous loop. Tres Buddhist, non?

Whatever the structure in the photo is, its position atop a small hillock made it look like an island fortress

This lizard was quite literally hanging around

One thing I sometimes wonder while stomping around in the hills and
mountains of central Taiwan is what would I do in the event a large
earthquake suddenly struck the area (probably scream like a baby).
According to this AFP article from Japan Today, I'll now a few seconds warning before the trails collapse from under my feet:

"Taiwan said Monday it had put into
service its first undersea seismic observation system, giving the island
life-saving extra seconds or even minutes to brace for earthquakes and
tsunamis.

The NT420-million
($14 million/¥1.07 billion) system, built by NEC Corp 日本電気株式会社, consists
of equipment ranging from ocean-bottom seismographs to tsunami pressure
gauges and even underwater microphones.

'The system gives a much
clearer picture of what’s happening. We can even hear the sounds of
dolphins swimming by,' Kuo Kai-wen, director of the Seismology Center
地震測報中心, told AFP.

'With the help of this system, we’ll be able to
attain an average of 10 seconds’ extra warning if earthquakes hit off
the east coast, and an extra 10 minutes to issue tsunami warnings,” he
said.

Taiwan is regularly hit by earthquakes, as it lies near the
junction of two tectonic plates. In September 1999, a 7.6-magnitude
tremor killed around 2,400 people in the deadliest natural disaster in
the island’s recent history.

The new alert system is centered around a submarine cable beginning at the township of T'ouch'eng (Tóu​chéng) 頭城 in the northeast of Taiwan and stretching for 45 kilometers (28 miles) into the ocean in a roughly easterly direction.

Nearly 70% of the earthquakes that strike Taiwan hit this area, according to the seismology center.

The
system is deployed at a depth of around 300 meters (980 feet), sending
real-time digital information to land via submarine optical fiber cable
24 hours a day, NEC said in a statement.

Taiwan began considering
an undersea alert system after the Indian Ocean tsunami in late 2004
killed almost a quarter of a million people.

Another undersea
earthquake, as powerful as that which caused the 2004 disaster,
triggered a tsunami that struck Japan in March, leaving about 22,000
dead or missing.

'The power of the two quakes was pretty much the
same, but the much lower toll figure in Japan shows that early warning
systems are very effective in the battle against unexpected natural
disasters,' Kuo said.

Now the workers at those three nuclear power plants on Taiwan's
northeast coast (two in operation, the other nearing completion) will
have a few more minutes to run for their lives before a massive tsunami
津波 swamps the facilities, already badly damaged from the earlier
earthquake, leading to catastrophic meltdowns and the irradiation of the
entire island. Time to head to the local いざかや (izakaya, or Japanese-style pub) for a round or two before it all comes to an end, On the Beach-style.